Linking the power of information technology and case management interventions: An assessment of recent medical-management trends

I magine a case manager screening a large employer group of 20,000 participants and within less than a couple of minutes: •Predicting, for the next 12 months with over 85% accuracy, the future costs and conditions, including all of the comorbidities of the population and for each specific plan participant in the group•Producing a personalized electronic chart for each plan participant showing his or her respective claims and medical histories•Identifying the patients' likely primary care physicians even if they have not been designated by the health plan•Creating a detailed table comparing national evidence-based medicine standards to each patient's actual medical experienceYour first reaction may be one of disbelief. You might think, “Yes, maybe in 2020.” However, the reality is that this type of information exchange in the context of case management (CM) is happening today, and it is revolutionizing the medical-management system as we once knew it.This article highlights some of the key changes that have recently occurred in the medical-management field and that are creating a paradigm shift in how CM services will be rendered in the future.